A member of the Celtic Fans Collective has described Monday night’s meeting with senior club officials as “civil but disappointing,” saying it failed to produce meaningful answers to concerns raised by supporters.
Paul Thompson, who attended on behalf of the Collective, shared his account of the discussion in the Jock Stein Lounge at Celtic Park — the same meeting which has since produced two very different public statements from the club and the fans’ group.
Fans are awaiting the minutes of the meeting being released, with both sides of the table taking their own minutes from the meeting.
Thompson, appearing on his RGC Podcast, said:
“The meeting itself, very civil, very generally even tempered, I’d say. There wasn’t any raised voices at all, which was quite surprising, apart from a couple of guys had to raise their voices to speak over the noise that was coming from the air conditioning units in the bar at the Jockstein Lounge, but I wouldn’t say it was convivial.
“It was quite formal, it was quite definitely clear that there was a degree of discomfort, and probably from our side as well as theirs, because there’s obviously been a lot of emotion in there the last few weeks, but it was, I guess, without going into the massive amount of detail on it, it was just a real disappointment.
“We looked at it from the perspective that we wanted to to take each question that was posed in the open letter, and effectively that served as the agenda, those seven questions which everybody’s seen and read, and that the board had decided not to respond to, but to be fair to them, they did have responses to each of the questions last night, if you could call them responses, but they were very laboured, very slow to address any actual action.
“There was no real commitments, maybe one commitment towards the end which we could pick up on, and it was really a case of, yeah, we think we do everything okay, guys, what’s your problem exactly?
“And it kind of was a recurring theme for the night was, you know, everything’s fine, and we’ve qualified for the group stages 19 times in the last 20 years, what are you worried about in Europe? You know, what’s the transfer policy?
“One of my favourites, which will come in the minutes, I’m sure, but the question around the communication strategy was answered by, ‘we put a statement in the AGM every year, and we also had Paul Tisdale, he did a presentation for 40 minutes at the Fans Forum once’, so that’s the communication football strategy to the wider support, and it kind of went on like that.
“It just felt like, I don’t want to get personal about it, because sometimes these processes need to be depersonalised, but the Chief Executive didn’t look like he was really particularly engaged or prepared for the meeting.
“The Finance Director was definitely more engaged and definitely more articulate in terms of the answers we got, not particularly detailed, but definitely articulate, and I think the challenge for the guys around the table at our side, and it was a big round table, if you want to picture it, we were all sitting around the table together, but the challenge for us was actually got to the point we were trying to get them to understand that we were trying to help them, rather than being adversarial and confrontational in any way.
“It was myself and one or two other guys going, ‘look, do you actually realise what you’re saying here? Do you realise the opportunity you’re missing here? Just give us something we can go back to people with and put their minds at rest that you’re actually in control of the situation’, and it was really difficult, it was like drawing blood of a stone, it was just constant references back to fans forums, the information that’s been provided before, stuff that we’re thinking of, stuff that we’re looking at, stuff that we could maybe communicate a bit better, if only we had a communications infrastructure we could use to do it guys, you know, it was that kind of thing, it was really, it was not becoming of conversations.”
Thompson’s description adds to a growing sense that the meeting, intended to calm tensions between the club and support, has instead highlighted the gulf in understanding between both sides.
His comments echo the tone of the Collective’s official statement, which accused the club of a lack of accountability and claimed “no tangible outcomes” were achieved.
What Celtic’s Statement Said
Celtic acknowledged that the club “is not where we want it to be” and admitted “mistakes have been made” during the summer transfer window and Champions League campaign. The club said it valued the opportunity to meet with supporters and share its perspective, while stressing that it remains focused on success this season.
What the Celtic Fan Collective’s Statement Said
The Celtic Fans Collective described Monday night’s meeting with the club as “disappointing” and said it produced “no tangible outcomes.” The group accused the Celtic board of showing a “lack of humility, awareness and accountability,” claiming senior figures repeatedly dismissed or deflected key questions raised in their open letter.
They said the club defended its football and transfer strategies and rejected suggestions of deeper structural or cultural failings. The Collective also expressed frustration at what they saw as a reluctance to take responsibility for mistakes or commit to meaningful change.
The group said the meeting “compounded the necessity and urgency of change” at Celtic and confirmed plans to continue consulting with members on next steps in their campaign for reform.
Full minutes from the meeting are expected to be published soon, offering supporters a clearer picture of what was actually said inside the room.
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